Does Your House Have Lions?

"One day in the late sixties, I was on the phone with Rahsaan and mentioned to him that just that day I bought a house.He responded by asking, "Does your house have lions?"I said, "What?"He said, "Lions, you know like in front of a museum or the post office. You know, concrete lions. My house has lions. Get a house with lions."

Sunday, July 31, 2011

In honor of Rahsaan's 76th birthday, I'll be giving away this commemorative poster:

To enter, just visit the blog between now and next Sunday and leave a comment on any post with your name and email address. On Rah's birthday, August 7th, I'll draw a name out of the hat to pick the lucky winner. This poster was created by screen print artist JD Fanning of the Bearded Lady and is signed and numbered.
You can enter as many times as you want. And I promise, I'm not clever enough to do anything crazy with your email.)

Saturday, July 23, 2011

"Kirk was like an encyclopedia of black music: he stored all this knowledge not in his head but in his body, not as knowledge but as feeling. He had all but abolished thought and raised feeling to the level of active intelligence." from But Beautiful, 1996 (North Point Press).

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I love this picture of Rahsaan. The top hat, the ring, and especially the pipe. In addition to his massive instrument and record collections, he also had a fabulous pipe collection. One of the first things that his producer, Joel Dorn, told me was that even though people thought of Rahsaan as an "out-there" jazz musician, he was really this down-home, Midwestern guy. He loved to have his friends over for backyard bbqs, he loved listening to football games, and he loved his 200-plus pipe collection.
As Steve Turre, his bandmate & friend said, "He and my dad used to both smoke pipes so they would have conversations about pipe tobacco. Rahsaan could relate to people on a lot of different levels."

Monday, March 21, 2011

"I like things from Bach to Roland Kirk. He hasn't even started yet, Roland Kirk....When you hear it, you can hear so much for the future, too. I mean not necessarily by notes but you can hear it by feelings."

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About Me

For the past several years, I have been researching and writing a book about the late, great, musician, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He was a jazz musician, but ultimately he defied categorization. As his producer and friend, Joel Dorn, once said, "People will be listening to his music 400 years from now."
This blog is to help further spread the word about Rahsaan, to post interesting stuff I find, and to document my journey with him. If anybody has any stories or anecdotes about Rahsaan, please feel free to share.